Teufelsberg (cont')

Not more than 20 meters from where children were sledding is a large, disturbed patch of soil in the scrub.  A man told me I had missed the boar by a minute. He showed me his cell phone pictures, and described how the animal had quietly wandered off.  In fact, boars infest this city (see here and here for U.S. news reports).

The Listening Station on Teufelsberg was bought by private investors in 1996.  Their plans to build condominiums were thwarted when the city declared the complex parkland.  The Listening station is now mostly a canvas for street artists.

Some of the rooms inside are filled with debris- lighting ballasts, ceiling tiles.  There is a massive paper shredder deep in the interior. The room is too dark to photograph.

The radoms, we are told, were covered to protect equipment from the elements- also to prevent the Soviets from monitoring the direction of surveillance.  The topmost radom is a different material- and design- from the others, which are geodesic.

Originally it too was geodesic.  However, after the fall of the Wall, German aviation authorities leased the radom and installed their own equipment.  The radar did not require covering, but the city insisted on preserving the landmark's architectural integrity.

On this snowy day, the Reuters power station is working hard.  The park- filled with sledders and others earlier- is nearly deserted at dusk.